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Banks rely on consumer indifference when they raise fees. They count on consumers not shopping around. PIRG’s Big Banks, Bigger Fees reports routinely find that small banks and credit unions are not following the big banks’ lead; they still offer many free or low cost accounts.

The letter highlights six main criteria by which a proposal should be evaluated to compensate consumers and the environment and deter future criminal acts. Four leading consumer, environmental, and public health organizations wrote an open letter in advance of the April 21st deadline set by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer for a proposal that deals with Volkswagen’s emission scandal.

A new factsheet from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group documents how corporations that have been charged with harming consumers through mortgage violations, price-fixing, racial discrimination and other charges have typically been able to write off the cost of their misdeeds on their taxes.

Attached is a brief, co-written by PIRG Litigation Director Mike Landis, filed today in the DC Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, filed on behalf of U.S. PIRG Education Fund and other leading groups in support of the CFPB's constitutionality. The full circuit will hear the case en banc on May 24th, after it vacated its own 2-1 panel decision holding the CFPB's structure is unconstitutional. We filed an amicus also at the panel level. We, along with several other consumer and civil rights groups, several members of Congress and several state Attorneys General, had unsuccessfully requested party-intervenor status in the case at the panel and en banc levels.

The first defense against any kind of identity theft is to be vigilant about protecting your personal information by taking steps like creating secure passwords, installing anti-virus and anti-malware software, and shredding personal documents. However, if and when someone does steal enough of your information to commit any form of identity theft there is really only one type of identity theft that you can stop before it happens: New account identity theft, where someone opens a new account in your name.